Don't Just Talk About Science With Your Kids, DO Science With Your Kids

President Barack Obama listens to sisters Kimberly Yeung (R) and Rebecca Yeung (L) explain their science project while touring exhibits at the White House Science Fair April 13, 2016 in Washington, DC.(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Our daughter, "SteelyKid" is seven, and has developed a fondness for "fact books" in the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not vein. One of the tidbits she got from this possibly reinforced by stories about Scott Kelly's year in space is the claim that you're taller in the morning than in the evening, because your spinal column compresses after a day of walking around upright. We had a lot of conversations of the form:

"Dad, did you know you're 1% taller in the morning than at night?"

"Yes, I did. Do you know why I know that?"

"Because I told you?"

"Exactly."

Of course, this is also an empirically testable claim, and while a 1% difference may not sound terribly significant, it's actually readily measurable. An average American adult is more than five feet (60 inches) tall, so a 1% reduction in height is about half an inch. I'm considerably taller than the average American adult, which ought to make the measurement even easier. So we did some science, marking my height on the door frame where we measure the kids last night before bedtime, and this morning before breakfast:

Marks on the door into our library showing my height in the morning and evening. (Photo by Chad Orzel)

(SteelyKid's four-year-old brother, The Pip, looked at these marks, and commented: "Daddy, you're nearly as tall as the door. Only a little more growing to do!")

According to these, I was
77 and 3/8ths inches this morning, and 76 and 13/16ths last night. That's a change of about 0.73% (a hair more or less depending on which height you use in the denominator), which is well within the acceptable uncertainty for a "Weird Facts" book pitched at second-graders. So, in the parlance of Zombie Feynman's favorite show (also one of SteelyKid's favorites): CONFIRMED.

I mention this not because it's a particularly impressive experimental achievement, but precisely because it's not a particularly impressive experimental achievement. It needed a tape measure, a stepstool, and remembering to re-measure my height the next morning. But both of the kids were really excited by the whole idea, and SteelyKid was pretty fired up (in a groggy early-morning kind of way) to see her fact book vindicated by measurements that she helped make.

It's important to remember, though, that science doesn't have to be complicated and resource-intensive. Science fairs can be cool and fun and get you an invitation to the White House, but science is just a process for investigating the world. You look at the world, think about why it might be that way, test your model with experiments and observations, and tell other people the results. This can involve complicated paperwork, elaborate protocols, and access to professional-quality labs, but it can also involve a step stool and a tape measure.

The most important thing kids, and adults for that matter, can get from science is not a set of facts, but a mindset: the idea that questions about the world have answers, and that you can find those answers through careful thinking and empirical testing. The best way to develop that is not just talking about science, but through actually going through the process when the opportunity presents itself. Obviously, you're not going to be able to test every single scientific claim you run across-- particularly not the exotic animal facts that are another staple of conversations with the kids, who are also fond of Wild Kratts-- but when you run across an everyday sort of claim, it's worth a little time to dig out a tape measure and make a real test. You're not likely to make any earth-shattering discoveries this way, but you'll help kids build a mindset that will set them up for future success, in STEM careers or basically any other path they want to pursue.

The scientific reasoning process is the most powerful tool we have for figuring out how the world works and using that knowledge to our advantage. And it's a tool all of us can (and do) use, regardless of age or available resources. So when you have the chance, don't just talk about science facts with your kids, get out and do some science.